The present invention relates to gas turbine engines, and more particularly, to an integral bearing support member and centering spring assembly.
The rotating shafts and other rotating turbomachinery of gas turbine engines are supported from a non-rotating structure by arrays of anti-friction bearings. In many engines, anti-friction bearings are enclosed in bearing compartments that allow the anti-friction bearings to be more easily lubricated and cooled.
Many bearing compartments, especially those located in the forward portions of gas turbine engines, have small profiles that make their interiors small and difficult to access for component assembly, routine maintenance, and repair. To support the anti-friction bearings within the bearing compartments, an outer race of the anti-friction bearings is typically press fit into a centering spring, which in turn is fastened to a bearing support member. The bearing support member is connected to a static casing of the gas turbine engine.
The aforementioned arrangement holds the centerline of the gas turbine engine in an appropriate position and allows for load and vibration transfer from the rotating shafts and other rotating machinery to the stator case of the gas turbine engine. Unfortunately, conventional centering springs and bearing support members are costly to fabricate as multiple parts must be sized and machined. For example, with the conventional configuration, centering springs must be machined to include a flange “kink” that turns 90° relative to the remainder of the centering spring. In addition to adding machining operations to the fabrication process, the flange “kink” comprises a region of stress concentration and has been known to deflect axially relative to a centerline of the gas turbine engine, which is not optimal.